MOST OF THE WOMEN WHO SERVED IN THE VIETNAM

WAR WERE ARMY AND NAVY NURSES

The Vietnam War was a long, costly, and divisive conflict that pitted the
communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its
principal ally, the United States. The conflict was intensified by the
ongoing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union
(Highpointnc, nd).According to Neel (1973), about 265,000 women
served in the U.S. military during the Vietnam Era, with as many as
11,000 deployed to the Vietnam theater of operations . Most military
women in Vietnam served as nurses in the Army, Navy or Air Force
Nurse Corps. The nurses functioned in life-and-death situations, were
assigned profound medical responsibilities generally exceeding the
authority they would have been afforded in civilian settings, and often
performed duties that were beyond the scope of their professional
training. Tours of duty for women in the Army Nurse Corps were
generally one year, with assignments at surgical or field hospitals and
convalescent centers. Air Force nurses were not stationed in Vietnam,
but could land in Vietnam multiple times in a single day to pick up
wounded soldiers and accompany them to hospitals in Japan or
elsewhere. (Kaiser et.al, 2017)

The motto of the medical corps was “Preserve the Fighting Strength.”
The nurses’ duty was to return the wounded to health so they could be
redeployed in battle.There was no ‘front’ in Vietnam. Soldiers and
nurses were vulnerable to attacks both in and out of camp. Nurses
worked twelve hour shifts, six days a week, caring for the sick and the
wounded. They dealt with mass casualties and tropical illnesses. Nurses
were also called upon to care for Vietnamese civilians and enemy
soldiers, which brought on conflicted feelings of guilt and fear for many
(Gruhzit-Hoyt, 1999).